37 fender skirts

sidevalve

Hi folks - I've been quiet for ages (as usual) - not because of any wish to be antisocial, but because of work, stresses and strains! I am feeling particularly sad this week because it's the first time for 26 years that I haven't been to Hershey, but this year I have decided to give it a miss, albeit with a heavy heart, because I rely on selling parts back here to pay for my trips, and eBay's Cassini search engine now means that eBay is so f***ed up that all my stuff is on page 936 and the rest of eBay is full of repro Chinese junk. So they've won. But I'll be back...

Anyway, I wanted to ask a question. For those of you who remember me, I am an English guy living in France, and I have the lovely AACA Senior and HPOF 37 Terraplane that used to belong to Duke Marley. The car has a perfect original interior and around 50% original exterior paint (the roof and fenders have been painted a long time ago, but that's all).

When I got the car it had fender skirts, but the paint on the rear fenders, which had been done before, wasn't great (the roof isn't either but I haven't got time to do that. All the original paint, however, is fantastic). So a few years back I removed the fenders and skirts and painted them (I ran a bodyshop so I am not scared of paintwork). However, I decided to let the paint dry for a while before I refitted the skirts, to stop them marking where they touch the fender... and then the weeks turned into months into years, and 5 years on I still haven't fitted them (and in the meantime I've moved from England to France!).

I would really like to fit them, as I feel they improve the look of the car a lot. However, now I can't find the fittings, or even remember what they are! There is a lever at the bottom that swings in and makes a catch engage at the top, but with just that they slide downwards, and there is obviously supposed to be something at the bottom front and/or back. Duke gave me an Allen key in a bag for undoing the fixings, and I have still got that, so I guess they are some kind of fittings with Allen screws(!). But what? I have attached a pic of the skirt in place, but as it is here it will fall off if I move the car (which is why there's a blanket under it!).

Any help gladly received and appreciated...

Thanks (and hello again!)

Alan

Glowplug

I have Zero experience with this fender skirt, but there have been numerous 30s HET fender skirts for sale on eBay.  One showing the 1935 variant is shown here

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1935-Hudson-Terraplane-Fender-Skirts-Pair-In-Restored-Condition-/122684485954?hash=item1c9090b142:g:060AAOSw4kVZrBwS&vxp=mtr&nma=true&si=9BWkWHvJXcpCWctRPSwib%2BNL%2FSI%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

search eBay completed auctions for the pictures....

Jay_G

So the link above shows the wire clips that hold the skirt on to the fender lip.  These are sometimes very effective and other times not depending on the shape of the fender and the lip.  So on my 37  the fender skirts fit great and stay put.  On my 46 truck with the fenders have been messed with so the skirt does not fit as well and will fall below the fender line.  Just something to watch for.

Jay

sidevalve

Thanks Guys. Mine don't have the wire clips - just a kind of lip that sticks up a bit. I guess I need to take some pictures of the other sides, but I had assumed they all fitted the same! Will take some photos and check back soon!

sidevalve

Hi again

Sorry about the long delay getting photos - the car's in storage for the winter 15 miles away, and I had to go and search out the skirts (they are always hard to locate because they're vulnerable so I tend to put them somewhere where they won't be disturbed, but then I usually forget where that was!).

Anyway, here are some pictures - like I said, it looks as if there is something that should go in those brackets at the ends, but I can't for the life of me thing what!

I'll put the first pic here and then upload the others separately, to be kind to the servers.

Thanks...

Alan

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Picture No. 2

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Picture No. 9

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Picture No. 10

Jon B

Alan, unless I am mistaken these are the reproduction fender skirts that were being made perhaps thirty years ago.  Possibly by Press Kale, though I'm not sure. 

Here is a photo of the missing clip, that I just took.


  

The picture is taken within the right rear fender, looking downward toward the plywood floor of the car trailer in which my '37 is stored.  The rear right tire is at left.  The welded clip (that is already on your skirt) is the lower of the two clips in the center of the photo, and the skirt is just above it in the background.  The vertical object at the center of the photo is the lower rear bead of the wheel opening.

The upper clip is what is missing on yours.  It is essentially a 1/16" thick piece of flat stock cut in a sort of "L" shape and drilled for a screw with a wing nut.  The L or hooked shape, reaches around and grabs the bead that turns in at the wheel opening, both to pull the fender skirt up tightly against the fender, and to prevent it from moving fore or aft.   

The end of the clip furthest from you, is bent down at 90 degrees, and is about 1/4" long.  That is done so that the clip cannot rotate once it's been bolted in place.  If it wasn't bent down, the clip could rotate if the bolt wasn't absolutely tight, and the skirt would loosen up.

There is a similar clip at the front end of the skirt. 

You probably have these clips kicking around somewhere and didn't know what they were.  If they're lost, it won't take much to have a couple reproduced.  

sidevalve

Thanks Jon - I really appreciate that, especially the fact that you've managed to motivate yourself to go out in the cold and dark in the garage and take a photo for me so quickly, whereas it took me a month to do the same job myself!

And what you say makes perfect sense - I am pretty sure Duke fitted them at around that timescale, because I first saw the car in 96 and they were on it then, but the paint didn't *quite* match - Duke's painter was a very good one, and he'd done a great job of the skirts, but the problem was that the fenders had been done some time before, and that wasn't such a great job (the skirts were a better match than the fenders). I have now done both the skirts and the fenders off the car, and used the same paint, and had that matched, so it's a great match all round - if only I could get the pesky things back on!

And yes, it also makes lots of sense that I have those four clips somewhere - I have around 200 plastic storage boxes of accessories and parts, and I tend to put parts off the Terraplane in the boxes that have the nicest accessories in them - but as it is around 5-6 years since I took them off, goodness knows which box they are in - or, until I saw your picture, what I was looking for! Now I know what I need, as you say, it will be easy to make a set of them - I just couldn't for the life of me work out how th system held them in place.

Thanks again!